A/N: It's that time again… I offer thanks and bishies to Mint Pizza Queen, my beloved Beta reader, for making sure that this story doesn't suck. And I want to thank Mauzkateer for reviewing! Yes, I know you wanted to see more of Al and Scar together, but wouldn't have allowed the whole scene I had in my head, and cutting it off at any point after where I did probably would have been just as bad. As soon as I get around to making an account, I'll post it there. Also! I have FINISHED the story, but I'm holding the rest of the chapters hostage until I get at least THREE reviews!

Yes, this is me being real stuble.

It was like something out of Al's worst nightmare. Five stories of solid stone and wood, now a large pile of rubble… a tomb filled with innocent children. People swarmed the mound, digging desperately. He could see Brother working feverishly to crumble the rubble into smaller, easier to shift pieces, and Rose and Klaus working with buckets to shift the rubble out of the way.

A flash of light drew Al's eyes over to where Izabel was frantically scrabbling at the rubble, screaming her brother's name as though her heart would break. Grace worked besides her, using her alchemically enhanced strength to toss the larger chunks of stone away. Al was aware of a cacophony of voices joining with Izabel's, calling out to sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, all buried somewhere down there.

Al didn't know where to start.

The part of his mind that was still functioning informed the rest of him that he was in shock.

"William!" Rose's voice cut through the fog in Al's brain, and he dashed towards his family.

Ed was carefully pulling his bruised and bloodied stepson from the hole they'd found him in. Rose embraced her firstborn tightly as Ed shimmied back down the hole to get another student.

Al took over the digging, drawing arrays and quickly using them to be rid of the rocks. All that mattered was getting to the kids.

Time passed oddly for the rescuers as they battled the odds. For Al, it seemed like only minutes had passed since he'd arrived, but when someone pulled him away for some water and a short break, he saw the sun was already past its zenith. Looking around, he tried to take stock of the situation without seeing the rows of white draped bodies laid in the clear space. For every one that made it out alive, there seemed to be a dozen that did not.

Al quickly looked away from the bodies, checking on his friends and family.

Ed was still digging through the wreckage, slowly but surely, that grim and determined look on his face. Rose was tending to the children pulled from the wreckage, and to the rescuers who had managed to injure themselves, while staying protectively close to her children. The entire Investigations Department was there, organized by Fury and searching methodically.

Izabel was still scrambling with increased franticness beside the stolid Grace. Al could see that her fingers were bloody, but she didn't seem to notice.

Even Furhur Mustang was there; his sleeves rolled up, working right next to…

Scar.

Neither man seemed to have noticed the other.

It might have been funny, under other circumstances. Right now, it simply wasn't.

Al joined the Ishbalan and the Furhur, silently going back to work with the two men.

It was almost dark when Mustang found Elysia and Abraham.

"Izabel! Over here!" Al called as Scar climbed down into the hole.

Elysia looked up at them through her cracked glasses, her face stained with rock dust, tears, and blood. Abe's head was cradled in her lap, and the boy was unnaturally pale, with beads of sweat on his brow. Al could see that his pupils were so dilated that his eyes looked black. One leg was trapped beneath a large chunk of wall, and Elysia had tied her school jacket just above his knee to try to stop the flow of blood to the crushed leg.

"We're going to have to amputate the leg." Scar said, kneeling beside the boy. "Even with the tourniquet in place, he'll bleed out if the wound isn't sealed. If we cut it off and cauterize the wound, we might be able to save him."

"Abraham acushla." Izabel whispered, climbing into the hole and kneeling at her brother's side. She stroked his face, her fingers leaving bloody trails in their wake. He moaned weakly in response.

Izabel activated the arrays on her jewelry and formed a wicked looking blade, then looked to Mustang, biting her lower lip.

"I'll close the wound as soon as the leg's off." Mustang assured her.

"Elysia, hold him tight." Izabel said in a pained voice, and raised the blade.

Scar was sitting with Abraham, watching the boy sleep the sleep of the drugged. Izabel was in the chair beside his bed in a similar state, thanks to a carefully administered cup of tea.

Scar was there only because the doctors under pain of drugging and being tied to a bed had forced everyone else who had been digging off. They insisted that everyone needed a good rest, and that it was time to let fresh people dig.

Scar was not resting. He was thinking as he stared at the flat place under the covers where Abe's right leg should have been.

They had been forced to drag Elysia out of the room. She'd kept babbling about how Abe had saved her, and that it was all her fault he was hurt. She'd been walking him to class when it'd happened.

Alphonse had disappeared almost an hour ago to make some phone calls.

Scar had spent that time thinking a great deal. In fact, he was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice Alphonse return.

"I called Winry," he said. "She's going to come here with her apprentice and see if they can make a new leg for Abe. They should be on a train about now."

"Wagner said I did it." Scar said.

"Wagner, I must point out, is full of shit."

"But he's right, in a way. I helped make this."

"This is not your fault." Alphonse said firmly. "You never attacked children."

"Wagner's uniform was very neat."

"Yes," Alphonse agreed darkly, looking down at his own disheveled state, "it was. Bastard." He flopped bonelessly into the room's last chair.

"How is Edward's family?"

"Everyone's fine. Klaus and Hilde are too young for school, thank God, and William was one of the lucky ones. Brother is exhausted, but that's to be expected." Alphonse stole a glance at Izabel's bandaged hands. She'd managed to rip out four fingernails and cut open both palms when she'd been digging.

Both men tried very hard not to think of the unluckiest children and their families.

Unrest moved through Central like a fog, enveloping everyone in its cold embrace. The tension in the air was so thick it could have been cut into blocks and chewed.

Izabel spent all of her time by Abe's bedside, and Scar and Alphonse staid by them both as much as possible. A stream of visitors also came through, with Grace being the most frequent of them. The Xianian never said anything, just sat with Izabel and held her hand. Elysia Hughes was the second most requent, bringing food and drinks every time she came. She would have staid in the room all the time is she could have gotten away with it.

Abraham always came alive when the older girl was visiting. The rest of the time, it was as if he was in a stupor, though that may have been because of the opiates the doctors had him on.

Today, the first visitors were a blond woman and a very pale young man with a shapeless black hat. Scar didn't recognize either of them. However, Alphonse did.

The blond major leapt out of his seat and embraced the woman. "Winry! I'm sorry I didn't meet you at the station, but with everything going on…"

"It's okay." Winry said brightly. "With all the times Ed's wrecked his automail, I know how to get from the station to every hospital in Central. So, let's have a look at the patient." She bustled to Abe's bedside. "Good morning!"

'How could anyone be so chipper?' Scar found himself wondering as Winry's bright eyes came to rest on him.

"Winry, this is my friend Scar." Alphonse said, clearing his throat. Scar, this is Winry Rockbell. I told you about her."

There was something about the knowing was the automail mechanic smiled at Scar that he didn't like.

The pale man slipped as silently as a ghost did to Winry's side. "Hello, Miss Ishtar," he said in a subdued voice, slipping the hat off his head. A pair of ram horns curved from his brow to behind his ears, but this seemed to come as a surprise only to Scar. "May we examine the limb?"

Al put a hand on Scar's shoulder and jerked his head towards the door. Reluctantly, Scar obeyed, following the Alchemist outside before demanding some kind of explanation. Al shook his head with a small sigh. "I swear, Cyrus is taller every time I see him. I probably should have warned you. He's a chimera."

"I noticed." Scar said flatly.

"But he's a damned good mechanic, and a nice boy. It's not his fault his mother did that to him. They'll take good care of Abe."

Scar made a non-committal noise, his right clenching.